It is well known that alternating cycles of using and laundering fabrics and textiles, such as articles of worn clothing and apparel, will inevitably adversely affect the appearance and integrity of the fabric and textile items so used and laundered. Fabrics and textiles simply wear out over time and with use. Laundering of fabrics and textiles is necessary to remove soils and stains which accumulate therein and thereon during ordinary use. However, the laundering operation itself, over many cycles, can accentuate and contribute to the deterioration of the integrity and the appearance of such fabrics and textiles.
Deterioration of fabric integrity and appearance can manifest itself in several ways Short fibers are dislodged from woven and knit fabric/textile structures by the mechanical action of laundering. These dislodged fibers may form lint, fuzz or “pills” which are visible on the surface of fabrics and diminish the appearance of newness of the fabric. Further, repeated laundering of fabrics and textiles, especially with bleach-containing laundry products, can remove dye from fabrics and textiles and impart a faded, worn out appearance as a result of diminished color intensity, and in many cases, as a result of changes in hues or shades of color.
Given the foregoing, several materials which could be added to laundry detergent products that would associate themselves with the fibers of the fabrics and textiles laundered using such detergent products and thereby reduce or minimize the tendency of the laundered fabric/textiles to deteriorate in appearance, have been identified in the art. Examples of such materials are cationic softening surfactants, cyclic amine based polymers, dye transfer inhibitors, chelating agents, crystal growth inhibitors.
However, it has been found that the fabric care cationic cyclic amine based polymers are not highly compatible with the high levels of anionic surfactants usually formulated within the conventional laundry detergent compositions. It has been found further that those anionic surfactants significantly decrease the efficiency of such cyclic amine based compounds. Such high levels of anionic surfactants are generally used to provide good cleaning properties. Therefore, in order to formulate compositions with such cationic cyclic amine based polymers, detergent compositions have been formulated without anionic surfactants but with nonionic surfactants. However, it has been found that detergent compositions with a high level of nonionic surfactants do not provide the same cleaning performance as comparable high level of anionic surfactants and are more difficult to formulate, especially at high electrolyte content.
In view of the above, the object of the present invention is therefore to formulate a laundry detergent composition which provide excellent cleaning properties together with excellent fabric care benefits. It has been surprisingly found that the combination of a semi-polar nonionic surfactant with the above mentioned cationic cyclic amine based polymer provide both excellent cleaning properties together with excellent fabric care benefits.
It has been further found that the combination of the semi-polar nonionic surfactants with the cyclic amine based polymers, of the present invention provide good dye transfer inhibition and antifading.
Furthermore, it has been found that that the compositions of the present invention demonstrate high physical stability when formulated in a liquid form.